GERMANY has issued a European-level arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor over his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea. German investigators believe the perpetrator, named as Volodymyr Z., was part of a team that in September 2022 planted an explosive device on the pipeline carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany.
German law does not allow the publication of suspects’ last names, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly denied that his country was behind the sabotage. It has disrupted Russian gas exports to the European Union and hurt Moscow’s energy revenues.
As reported by the Guardian, Thursday (15/8), Volodymyr Z was last known to be living in Poland, according to reports from the newspapers Suddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit and the public broadcaster ARD, which cited unnamed sources.
The Polish prosecutor’s office confirmed that it had received a German arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man suspected of the Nord Stream attacks named “Volodymyr Z.”
It said it received the warrant in June, but the suspect left for Ukraine last month. It also said authorities failed to prevent him from leaving because the information had not yet reached the country’s border guards.
German investigations have identified another man and woman alongside Volodymyr Z who are also Ukrainian diving instructors. However, no arrest warrants have been issued for them at this time.
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Several explosions on September 26, 2022 damaged two gas pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and 2. The explosions occurred near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. Four leaks were discovered shortly afterward.
Russian natural gas was previously supplied to Germany via the 63 billion cubic meter per year Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The similarly sized Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not yet operational.
The route was built to divert Russian gas exports to the EU from the Ukrainian pipeline network, on which they had previously relied heavily.
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Russia’s gas sales to the EU were by far the country’s most profitable until the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the ensuing political strife wiped out the trade.
Russia and Western countries have accused each other of being behind the Nord Stream blast. Each side denies involvement and no one has claimed responsibility.
Authorities in several countries are investigating the case. But Denmark and Sweden have dropped their investigations without coming to any conclusions.
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In January 2023, Germany raided a ship it said was likely used to transport explosives and told the UN it believed trained divers could have attached the device to a pipe about 70 to 80 metres (230 to 260 feet) deep.
In March last year, The New York Times reported that US officials had seen intelligence indicating a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible for carrying out the blast without Zelensky’s knowledge.
It remains unclear whether the finding that Ukrainians were behind the attacks on the pipelines will have a negative impact on Germany’s support for Ukraine.
“The level of resources, money, military hardware that is being funnelled from Germany, from Poland to Ukraine is enormous,” says Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane in Berlin.
“The German government is currently saying that this development will have no impact on their relations with Kyiv. But it is clear that this is a very serious matter,” he concluded. (I-2)
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